Kudos for our teams’ handling of Agir Tôt, mental health and digital health files
Our CIUSSS’s innovations to recruit and retain staff in the Maternal-Child Health program have received high marks from Deputy Health and Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant, who says the approach can serve as a model for the rest of Quebec.
Mr. Carmant’s praise grew out of meetings at the Jewish General Hospital on August 10 with senior CIUSSS leaders and teams from Rehabilitation, Frontline Services, Mental Health and Digital Health—meetings he described as “very constructive.”
The minister shared his observations with the 360° Employee Newsletter, a publication of the Department of Communications and Media Relations of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal. In the interview, he singled out Maternal-Child Health’s staffing successes as one key takeaway of the meeting.
“The way they have developed career plans is really a nice model,” Mr. Carmant says.
Our CIUSSS’s Nursing Directorate offers initiatives such as career “trajectories,” mentoring and on-going training. For example, nurses can begin working in the Post-Partum Unit and continue their careers at the Family Birthing Centre or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Mr. Carmant says Nursing’s proactive approach has helped to alleviate staff shortages and develop positive relationships on the Maternal-Child Health team.
“I think the model deployed in CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, including the Jewish General Hospital, is a model that should be reproduced elsewhere in Quebec, because of its efficiency, but also because of the relationship that staff builds with the Nursing Directorate and with the institution,” says Mr. Carmant.
The junior minister, a pediatric neurologist, also voiced approval for our CIUSSS’s implementation of Agir Tôt (act early), one of the minister’s priorities. The program is aimed at improving early detection and intervention for children with a developmental delay before they enter kindergarten. In our CIUSSS, the program is jointly implemented by Frontline Services and Rehabilitation and Multidisciplinary Services, which screen and assess children up to age 7 with the goal of reducing delays in diagnosis and starting interventions.
Mr. Carmant says the process is being executed well at CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.
“The goal of Agir Tôt is to ensure that all children get the services for developmental delays as early as possible, ideally before the age of 3,” Mr. Carmant says. “In CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, the screening aspect is deployed perfectly. And orienting patients toward the right services is also done very appropriately.”
“You need the right service at the right time by the right professional. It’s a sort of catchphrase,” Mr. Carmant adds. “With your CIUSSS, this is already in place.”
“I think the model deployed in CIUSSS West-Central Montreal, including the Jewish General Hospital, is a model that should be reproduced elsewhere in Quebec.”
He highlights the work of two teams: Jeunes en difficulté (youth at risk), and those working with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities and autism spectrum disorder.
Mr. Carmant says he is equally impressed by efforts to enhance community-based services in mental health. “I think there’s really nice teamwork and a desire to increase community-based care. This was clearly expressed in mental health, for example. This means giving services to the local population and reaching out to patients, not just waiting until they come to the hospital.”
Mr. Carmant’s responsibilities also include the digital health file (known as Dossier santé numérique), whose goal is to make health information accessible at all healthcare services points. He says the objective is shared by Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of the CIUSSS. “The patient’s file has to be accessible wherever the patient goes, which is not the case now,” Mr. Carmant says. “It’s what the CIUSSS West-Central Montreal wants to do, what Dr. Rosenberg wants to do, and what I want to do. We really have the same vision for the deployment of the project.”
